CalTexCruiser

This is definitely on the high side for a sky suite but I wouldn't say its egregious, as I've seen worse. When you say "I found out on board we had significantly been overcharged"--is that based on comparing the rate you paid to others? Remember that people who book early (such as when onboard another cruise) often get much lower rates, so comparing your fare to theirs is not going to establish that your travel agent ripped you off.

This is terrible. This is a definite downgrade from the butler delivering the breakfast.

I guess Princess is learning that there is high demand for "free" pizza, but very low demand for pizza that will cost passengers either money or Plus credits. To be fair though, this is still in the transition period so only time will tell whether charging for casual dining is the revenue generator they expected, either (1) through increased casual dining purchases onboard OR (2) increased purchases of the Plus/Premier packages.

I think the 2 butlers of the butler team are there to service requests IF asked, similar to the Retreat concierge(s)...it would take forever for them to go to each Sky Suite to introduce themselves, as there are just 2 of them and many, many, many Sky Suites.

Oh I see, so everything marked with "Signature" is dedicated to full suites only. I also see two elevators at the rear of the ship that go to the Signature Lounge and Signature Sun Deck--I wonder if those elevators are also dedicated to full suite guests only. Seems like Princess has really upped its game for the suite-only enclave experience.

from the Sun Princess deck plan, I see a "Reserve Collection Restaurant" and a "Signature Restaurant." What's the distinction between the two? It appears from the deck plan that these two restaurants are separate from the MDR, which IMO seems like an improvement over Reserve dining on the other Princess ships where the Reserve dining is part of the MDR but in a separate area. Will the restaurant assigned to full suites have elevated dining choices similar to Celebrity's Luminae or NCL's Haven? I wasn't terribly impressed with suite dining on the Discovery Princess as it had the regular MDR dining menu plus one additional item (which wasn't that great either).

Thanks for sharing this. I suppose technically your friend was downgraded to a worse location, not upgraded so the "No Upgrade" instruction was not violated.

Don't forget to bring a collapsible dolly to carry the retreat tote bag filled with drinks. OR Just bring your suitcase to the retreat lounge to fill up.

Until they raise Plus to $70 (maybe at the end of 2023?), at which point some of the things that were included with Plus 60 would be upcharges. Perhaps everybody on Plus 60 gets 3 free MDR dinners per sailing, and a "nominal fee" of $14.99 per dinner will apply thereafter. Don't want to pay?--eat at the buffet or grab a burger/pizza by the pool.

In fairness, cruise line loyalty programs are different from hotel/airline loyalty programs that require customers to re-qualify annually. I've qualified for elite with Celebrity, and will remain elite regardless of how much I sail with them per year. The cruise lines should consider scrapping their current loyalty programs and switch to a program that requires re-qualification every year...then they can start offering meaningful benefits for those in high tiers, such as free upgrades, free sailings using points, etc.

The quote "non-interest on part of vapers" appears to be the key here. Celebrity hoped that allowing vaping would increase gambling in casinos, but it appears vapers have not shown up in sufficient quantities at the casino. Hopefully our writing campaign to the executive office has convinced them the risk-reward would point towards not allowing vaping in casinos.

This sailing epitomizes our changing world from climate change. Who would have thought that it would be possible for a cruise to sail from out-of-control wildfires in Hawaii to a hurricane in California? What's next...a blizzard in Fort Lauderdale?

May be rough seas even if down to tropical storm...not sure if the ship will chance sailing into LA on Monday...maybe wait until Tues perhaps.

Has any fellow passenger actually given this crass self-entitled person a verbal what-for? These types of people MAY back off on their selfish behavior if confronted. We have a selfish neighbor that used to allow her dogs to roam unleashed on our street but after we got into it with her she has since (1) kept her dogs off the streets, and (2) avoided us.

What "Overall guest feedback"? This response from Celebrity is total horses**t. The correct non-vaping guest population to survey are non-vaping/non-smoking gamblers. I'm sure if you ask a non-vaping gambler who never enters the casino whether vaping in the casino would negatively impact their cruising experience, of course the answer is no. Unfortunately it looks like vaping in casinos is a done deal.

Actually its 200 per passenger TOTAL for 12 days for the mini-suite. So the percentage is much higher.

NCL Bliss and Joy have smoking only in an enclosed space of the casino--the rest of the casino is smoke free.

We paid $ 200 pp + port fees/taxes for a mini-suite on our 12-day upcoming cruise. When we booked, Alfredo's and OceanNow were free. Now we have to pay for these services which in the aggregate will make up a substantial percentage of our cruise fare.

I was comparing the Sky Suite to Seabourn's Veranda Suite (lowest level suite) which we are booked in. Similar square footage. The Celebrity Suite would be comparable to Seabourn's Penthouse Suite. There are no non-suite cabins on Seabourn.

Yeah forgot about those odd-ball Signature Suites 1 butler to 9 suites still pretty good Yikes. If one enjoys being on hold when calling shoreside customer service, that experience will be extended to SS passengers trying to reach their butlers.

Oof. that's a bit steep for a Celebrity Sky Suite. We have an upcoming Seabourn cruise for $ 800 a day (for two people). No such thing as AI because everything is automatically included, including specialty dining.

Thanks all for your replies. 1pm or later sounds great. I tried the strategy of arriving at 1:30pm when embarking in SF on Ruby Princess, but still waited 3 hours in line. But that was a perfect storm of lots of covid patients on board waiting to get off, a crappy terminal (Pier 39 which should never be used as an embarkation/debarkation port), and rainy weather.

On the Reflection, I counted 20 upper suites (Celebrity Suites and above). That means each of the 3 butlers assigned to the 20 upper suites would serve about 7 suites. This is a VAST improvement before the latest changes. Previously, our "dedicated" butler when we stayed in an upper suite may be assigned up to 18 suites total. Hopefully, for the OP, this translates into butler service that should be much, much better than before, notwithstanding no specialty dining room service. The folks getting Royally Screwed(*) are in Sky Suites with the 2 assigned butlers. * "Royally Screwed" is a trademark of Royal Caribbean. All rights reserved.

We have a cruise departing Ft Lauderdale at 4pm. For the experienced Princess cruisers out there, when do the embarkation crowds generally thin out? If we arrive at 1:30pm, would that still be too early? We'd like to time it so we can check in and walk on without any lines.

I must have missed the discussion on buffet utensils. Are there an insufficient number, or are they of the wrong type, or are they in a state of disrepair?